Today I’m going to be talking about, how the lockdown or more specifically the forced quarantine, has affected my life and my girls as a home /unschooling family.
A lot of parents have now been forced into homeschooling their children, something that they never would’ve considered or maybe they have considered it, but they never actually tried it. Now most parents have been put in a situation where their children are with them all the time now and that can be very stressful for some, who are not used to having their children around and actually being in the presence and seeing exactly how their energy changes throughout the day.
That something, I’m very used to and me and my girls are very good at reading one another and recognizing when we need time to ourselves. I also know when is a good time to introduce new ideas, or suggest some activities. You get to know these things quiet quickly when you take the time to observe and listen to your children.
That is perhaps the most important thing, just observing them and listening to them, everything else flows on from that.
I feel very fortunate that we live on quite a large piece of land and that my girls could still have the freedom to run around, to climb trees and explore. But still, even after a few weeks this space began to feel small and my girls were asking when they could go out, to go to the boat where the big swing is and when they could go and see their friends.
The most difficult for them, I think, was that they were not able to go and play with their friends, my two eldest are 10 and 7. They are quite close in age and play quiet well together but still they can wind one another. It’s quite normal, for there to come a point in the day, where they would need to be apart from one another, just so that they can each have some space.
Recognizing this is very important, as you need realize that they each need their space and that it is not fair to force them to be together. As much as it is important, to give them their freedom when they need it to go out and explore the things that they want to.
After a while, my two eldest girls started to feel quite contained and I could really begin to see how this was affecting them. We talked quite openly about the coronavirus. I shared my opinion with them, which is that we are exposed to viruses all the time and that's it’s very important that we allow our bodies to be exposed to them, so that our immune systems can do what they were designed to do. And that is to fight these virus's, so that we can build up immunity and strengthened our bodies whilst doing that. Because we eat well and our healthy, they are not worried about it.
In the beginning they were not really worried about the restrictions either, because they still had some freedom but as time went on, they really got to see the effects of these restrictions. It was the first time, that 'Adult Life' really impacted their lives. Their grandmother wouldn’t be able to come and visit them, which she had planned to do in April and their auntie won’t be able to come and see them next month.
They’re quite upset about that and that that brought up a lot of issues for them, things that they didn’t have to deal with before. I would’ve spoken to them, about how things can change for you as you get older, but I was not going into too much detail, because it's more important to focus on the here and now, so that they can be kids.
Of course, if they ask me questions I would always answer them, but this is the first time, where it’s been hard to mask the frustration and the worry that we are all experiencing and which they too are experiencing. Having to explain how only I was me allowed to go into town. Having to explain, why people have been told I have to wear masks, why you have to be a certain distance away from one another, things that really conflicted with what they knew already about how about their bodies work.
My girls know, how powerful their bodies are, how capable they are of healing themselves and that what’s important is eating good food and being outside and doing exercise. Then suddenly, they get to see how the government ,is telling us the opposite , how you shouldn’t be going outside, how you should be confined and punished. It made no sense to them, just as it didn't make any sense to me. All of this has been a huge reality check for them.
All of these things, that we are being told and forced to do, goes against what I’ve been telling them. So they really got to see, how what goes on in the world, is not necessarily what is best for us and it’s actually quite an important lesson. Because this is the world that we live in and this is what the health authorities are like, this is what the government really like.
There’s been a lot of sitting down and a lot of questions, a lot of talking with them trying to understand why things are happening the way that they are. Quite serious conversations, which I was not expecting to be happening so soon, but I’m also glad that we did.They have had to grow up a bit more during these times, but through it all, they’ve still coped really well.
My two eldest, have been really creative. My eldest daughter has really been spending a lot of time drawing and much more than she normally would, because she’s been put in this situation where she doesn’t have as much freedom as she is used to. She chose to put your focus into art, whilst my middle child has got into photography. I done a post recently about their art and how impressed I was.
They have both realized as well how things can improve greatly when you put the time and the effort in it. Which is another really important thing for them to learn, because I can say all these things, about how, if you want to get really good at something you have to keep doing it ,you have to practice, practice, practice. But it’s not the same, not when you actually see it for yourself.
What’s changed the most for us, as a home educating family, is a crash course in what the world is really like. There is no more trying to protect them, well there is, but it’s very, very obvious to me and them what’s going on at the moment in the world. ( Okay they don't know the whole picture, cos who does, but they can now understand how unjust and unfair the government is and how they do not really care about us). They think it is stupid that we are not being told to look after ourselves better.
I've always said to them, you got to ask questions, don’t just take something as someone says it,or as you see it. Because things are rarely what they seem on the surface. Ask questions and dig deep, find out everything that you can and then say to yourself, okay this is what I think, this is what I feel and this is what I found out and then you will be informed.
So there you have it, we have all become deeper thinkers during this lockdown and also more creative, which is a pretty good combination I think. On top of growing lots more food and looking at ways in which we can become even more self-sufficient.
Photos and Art By My Girls
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